ashes in the wind
by edeabeth
Summary: There is a loneliness in the way that she walks, because she doesn't dare lean on anyone else.
1. Chapter 1

It takes two weeks for Jade to return to school and when she does no one really recognizes her.

Her hair is natural again, completed by dark blue streaks. It makes her look less angry and people can't stop watching her as she walks down the hallway to her locker. She's still aggressive in her black combat boots and a tall tumbler of dark clutched in a pale hand. Beck watches her out of the corner of his eye as she kicked the locker loudly in her efforts to unlock her own.

"Gonna talk to her today?" Andre asked as he leaned against the wall. He has a flute case tucked under his arm and a handful of sheet music crammed half way into his messenger bag. "Can't avoid her forever."

He shrugged. "She'll probably come after me at some point."

Beck can't be the one to go after her. He has pride and his dictates that he won't have her controlling him forever. Jade counting down from ten has been echoing around in his skull for fourteen days straight. Andre is giving him a look that practically screams you're being an idiot and Beck just wants things to be like they were early on, when every morning he could wake up to feeling Jade in his arms.

She was easier then, before her darkness just overwhelmed her entirely. He was tired in catering to her demands and needs.

Jade walks by without even noticing either of them and it makes his heart ache a little.

.

Everyone is noticing a difference in Jade.

It's not that she's any nicer than she was before, because she'll still verbally tear people apart. She's as morbid and prickly as ever but she is just simply changed since she broke up with Beck. No one knows what exactly happened when they finally ended, whether Beck broke up with her or if Jade was already long gone.

All anyone knows is that Jade is Jade West again and no longer are they Jade&Beck.

There is a loneliness in the way that she walks, because she doesn't dare lean on anyone else.

.

Tori gets the part in some school play and Jade barely noticed. She's already involved in two independent musicals and her own script that will get produced through one of her classes. She doesn't need to compete with Tori anymore because she's slowly regaining her old momentum once again.

One play gets featured in the newspaper and Beck cuts out the photo that accompanies it. It makes her look happier than she has been in years, eyes glittering in the spot lights and lips turned upwards. The photographer took it at the perfect time of the perfect girl, capturing her fire.

If he was smart he might have noticed the credit at the bottom of the image before he cut it out. Ryder Daniels is in small bold lettering but later it'll pierce him through the chest.

.

Her parents are yelling when Daniels sends her text message. It's blunt and brief but it is an escape from the poison that the two are screaming and howling.

 **RD: You ever get bored of being so angry?**

It makes her lips twitch which is the only reason that she replies. **JW: you ever get tired of being an ass?**

 **RD: nah. It's engrained in my dna.**

She leaves him hanging because she can, and doesn't bother asking how the hell he has her number. Jade's parents don't sound nearly so loud anymore.

When she falls asleep she doesn't dream of anything but she wakes up feeling slightly happier.

.

The friend group is splitting. Everyone can see.

Cat is dating Robbie, a fate dreamed up from the pits of hell. They're off fluttering across the campus holding hands and being obnoxiously sweet. Rex has vanished somehow, maybe somewhere along the lines Robbie found confidence.

Andre and Tori have separated. He's tired of writing the songs and having her take over during performance. Tori likes taking over a lot of things unfortunately, mostly other people lives. That is what makes Andre draw the line, because he simply cannot live like that. It hurts the way she pushes her way in and flings herself into the heart of the problem.

She grips at the notion of love and sours when it doesn't work out the way she thinks it should. Andre is looking for his own horizons still and eventually begins to branch out past their instant partnership and Beck's companionship.

There's something dark and unsettled in Beck that makes Andre feel sick.

.

A girl snaps a picture of Jade and Ryder together and suddenly the entire school is buzzing about it. They're standing in line at the movie theatre together and she's just barely leaning against him. He's in the middle of talking and she's smirking.

Suddenly no one can stop talking about it.

.

"You're dating Ryder now?"

"What of it, Vega?" Jade demands as she unlocks her locker. She practically flings her textbooks into it, relishing in the aggressive banging.

"You do remember that is the guy who broke my heart, right?"

"Weren't you just friends with advantages anyways?" She's pleased when Vega pales.

What has also been gossiped about so feverishly is Tori's poor friendships. Eventually someone noticed that she was befriending the talented and somehow stealing the credit. Andre is only victim number one, as the resident song bird worked her way through the majority of the talented she could leach onto. Her voice was a power house, her ability to write and create her own art wasn't quite so much equal to it.

"I just don't want to see you get hurt by him as well-"

Jade cuts her off with a single look.

She doesn't need Vega sticking her nose in her business.

.

one two three four five six seven eight nine ten nine eight seven six five four three two one-

.

Ryder always picks her up for school and greets her with a smile every time. It makes her want to punch him when she smiles like that.

.

Beck's RV is much emptier now.

Her books are gone. The change of clothes, make up and spare things were removed one day, her old key taped to the ceiling above his bed. It's maddening, the lingering scent of her perfume that fades by the hour.

He still looks at old pictures of them together and tries not to notice the cold stare he gives and the way she looks a little smaller in every shot.

.

"You ever gonna talk to her?" Some guy asked Beck one day because the entire school has been waiting for the moment the two have it out in the hallways again.

.

Jade kisses Ryder a little after midnight and she feels warm and excited for the first time in a long while. She doesn't have to be like ice, the way she was with Beck. He would freeze her out with his exhausting detachment and she would have to tire herself chasing for his love and affection. She'll never forget the way it looked when she first found him kissing some girl the first time, and all the times his phone buzzed at three in the morning.

Ryder doesn't do that. His phone is off when they're together and he already punched one guy out when he said something that wasn't entirely nice to Jade despite the fact that she wasn't always entirely nice-

he never cared about that.

They fit nicely against each other. Not clashing fire and ice.

.

Beck watches them leave school one days and imagines he should have talked to her because now she's long gone, like ashes in the wind.


	2. Chapter 2

Sure, the entire school heard about the spectacular fight between Jade West and Beck Oliver. It was done out in the front parking lot and only ended when Jade agreed to get into his rusty truck to settle their issues somewhere else. Before the terrible break up this had been so common. Jade screaming at Beck as he froze her out until he finally broke down into rage. Now, there were new things at risk.

Ryder and Jade's budding relationship, for one thing, was so delicate and new the entire school couldn't help but wonder what this fight would mean for it. How long would it take for Beck to take Jade back, how long would it take for Ryder to take off?

Jade West herself had changed since the break up and no one could really tell if they wanted her to revert back. This Jade was just as angry and spiteful, but she was almost more open in an odd way. Her coldness was clipped with openness that hadn't existed before Beck broke her heart.

.

The next day at lunch everyone is watching.

Jade sits next to Ryder at her old table with the entire group of friends that had for the most part broken up themselves. They're oddly seated together for whatever reason, and Ryder and Beck can barely tear themselves away from their glaring contest.

"So, I was thinking about going to Karaoke with some girls from my song class after school," Cat began in her airy voice. She's giving the entire group a blissful little smile. "This new place opened up downtown, and they serve ice cream and bubble tea!"

"Sounds great, Cat." Tori said passively. "Who are all these girls that you're hanging out with now?"

The red head starts talking with giddiness while Robbie leaves to grab two drinks from the food truck. Jade hates how Tori is already tuning Cat out.

"Maybe we should come up with a song to perform for the big dance this weekend," Tori says talking over Cat. Andre has his phone and is texting fourteen other different people including his pen pal from Europe.

"Maybe." He grunted before taking a sip of his lemonade.

They sit in silence for a few moments before Ryder turned to Jade. "Why the fuck are you wearing sunglasses? It was raining this morning."

Something in Beck's jaw clenches.

.

Jade is walking away from her locker with her head bent and her copy of Shakespearian History clutched to her chest. She makes it about ten feet away when Ryder grabs her by the arm and hauls her off to the janitor closet. "Get off of me!" She shouts in his ear and he winces. "I swear to God you have exactly five seconds to get your filthy hand off of me."

He flings the door open and forces her into the closet before slamming the door shut again loudly. "You look ridiculous wearing those glasses."

"You look like you have a death wish you freak."

Ryder rolled his eyes. "Listen, I saw you leave school with him last night to talk. Today those have been glued to your face and I'm actually not that stupid."

"Debatable."

"Whatever." He stops her when she tries to push by him. "Take them off now."

"How about no?"

Jade nearly gouges his eyes out as he wrestles with her in the enclosed space for the sun glasses. They nearly break when he rips them off her face and suddenly the fight is drained out of her. "Holy fuck, did Oliver do this?"

The black eye is only slightly noticeable from her efforts with makeup. However, it exists all the same. "What do you care?" She demands and steps back away from him. "Don't touch me."

Ryder ignores her and starts to peel away her dark sweater that looks suspiciously like his. There is an angry bruise on her wrist and one just below her right shoulder. "I'm going to pound his face in, I swear to God."

"Relax, dude."

"Don't tell me to relax."

"It was an accident,"

"No. Me forgetting to text you when you got home was an accident, this is the opposite."

.

They're lying in his bedroom in a tangle of sheets and intertwined limbs. She's always been cool to touch so he can't help but pile on the blankets whenever he has the chance. "What happened?" Ryder finally asks.

Jade had washed off the make up when they made it to his house. The bruise on her face looks so much more violent when it's not hidden under layers of concealer. "He wanted to talk."

"What did he say?"

"That he missed me. That he was sorry. Common bullshit."

Ryder hates how it's like prying answers from her. "What did you tell him?"

There's a long pause before she bothers to reply. "That I was happier now."

.

Beck comes to school a mess. His face is swollen and bruised and he walks stiffly. "Your home boy do this?" Andre asked, pausing by Jade as she drinks coffee by her locker.

"Just a little."

.

"Don't fucking touch my girl again, Oliver."

.

"I love you, you fucking moron."

"I love you, West."


End file.
